Lonely Soldier
by dawnriser
Summary: Isaac, a 17 year old student, is thrust into the death game full of guns, violence, and death. He is forced to compete in this game against thousands of others for survival. The death game is called Gun Gale Online. This is a what if GGO was the death game rather than SAO story. OCxSinon Ratings changed because of violence, gore, language, and other non-kiddie friendly things.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online in any way shape or form. I wish i did, but the honor of getting all that sweet, sweet mula do not go to me. All the rights are to their respective owners. The only thing that I own are the fingers that are typing this story and the plot line.

Without further ado I, Dawnriser, present to you. Lonely Soldier my first fic and hopefully not my last one.

**Updated 4/4/13**

Chapter 1

Isaac's classmates swarmed out of the classroom when the bell rang, announcing the end of the day. The door shut behind the last person in the class as Isaac was packing up his bags. Nobody stayed after to talk with him or hang out after school but he was used to being alone. Ever since middle school, people avoided him for fear of being caught in the bullying that followed the boy. His feminine face and girlish form inspired the children to ridicule and mock him on a daily basis and Isaac knew today would be no different than all the other ones, except he had something to look forward to when he got home.

The new game, [Gun Gale Online] was finally releasing for the public to play. He was looking forward to jumping back into the game ever since the beta, where he was one of the lucky thousand to get chosen to test the game, ended. He wanted to get back into a world of guns and adventure where he was able to leave his life behind and become a new person.

He walked down the halls that were quickly emptying of students. A couple steps from the exit, Isaac heard people stomping from behind him. Isaac stopped moving and just let the two behemoths grabbed his shoulders to drag him away to the classroom that he was just passing by. The classroom was an old abandoned one that no one ever used for anything besides storing extra desks and chairs. The two teenagers grabbed his backpack from his shoulder and tossed it out of the way. They spun him around so that he was facing his own personal demon duo. The two large seniors were the same ones who had bothered him for years, starting from almost the first time that they ever saw him. Conner and John Evans were both children of the principle so they felt that they were immune from the rules that governed everyone else. They used this immunity to torment Isaac and a host of other outcasts in the school. Isaac found out long ago, the beatings would always last longer if he showed emotion. If he gave them an inch they would take a mile, so he put on his mask and hid his emotions behind a blank face.

"What do we have here? The pretty boy thought that he could leave without saying hello to his good ol' friends, brother." Conner the bigger of the two said over Isaac's head.

"That he did," John responded back and they both shoved Isaac into the wall they were standing next to. " Do we have to teach him manners again?"

Isaac stiffened, but kept his mask still up when they turned back towards him after debating how Isaac had wronged them. John cracked his knuckles in an attempt to look intimidating, but it did not bring a response much to his displeasure. The first move that they made was Conner planted his foot into Isaac's chest and bounced him off the wall. John took his queue and brought his fist to Isaac's chin with a hard uppercut. Isaac bit his lip when it hit and blood started leaking from his mouth. That just excited the two boys into striving to new heights. Conner swung his fist again and hit Isaac in the cheek and brought him crashing to the ground. When he hit the ground he curled into a ball to protect his head and his torso. It did not take long for them to start kicking and stomping on him. One of the blows caught his temple and slammed his head into the floor dazing him enough to loosen up. They noticed and switched their attention to his chest and stomach. The blows rained down on Isaac's chest and throughout the entire thing they were mocking him for being weak and the sad thing was that Isaac agreed with them. He could not even stand up for himself and allowed for them to use him as a punching bag for the last couple years. A couple minutes later, with a particularly hard hit they stopped. One of them lit a cigarette and the other started to ransack his backpack.

The one with the cigarette flicked ashes on Isaac that burned slightly before going out, but he could barely feel it after the harsh beating that they gave him. He heard a grunt and then a crash. Isaac painstakingly raised his head up and saw that his textbooks were scattered across the floor and all his papers were floating around the room. He heard both them start laughing at the mess and one of them suddenly started cheering. John, the one that was smoking, flicked that cigarette at Isaac after a long drag and blew the smoke in his face before getting up and heading over to his brother. Conner was holding in his hand, Isaac's wallet. He reached into it and pulled out what ever was in it. All his allowance was in it and they pocketed what they found before tossing the wallet to the back of the classroom so he would have to crawl across the desks to reach it.

Now that their fun was officially over, they gave him a parting kick and walked out of the classroom pushing each other around like hadn't just beat up a fellow classmate until he could not move. they slammed the door shut hard enough to rattle the walls and disturb the dust in the room. Isaac laid there for a while until the pain settled down enough for him to get up. He picked up his backpack from where to two had thrown it and picked up all the books that they had tossed out of it while sorting through it for his wallet. After finding all the books and papers he could find were back where they were supposed to be. Isaac went hunting for his wallet for all the good that it would do him. The wallet was only their to hold his ID and money and one of the two were now gone.

He crawled below the desks and reached for the wallet. It caused a twinge in his side where a vicious kick was given. It took several attempts until he could force his way through the pain and grab it. He stuffed it in his pants pocket and left the room to head for the nearest bathroom. On the way there he passed several students that had stayed after school. They stopped and stared, but did nothing to help him on his way. He staggered into the closest bathroom and checked to see what damages were done. He cringed when he looked into the mirror. He brow above his left eye had split open and it was leaking blood down the side of his face. His mouth was also dripping blood, but at a much more sedated pace. Isaac grabbed a handful of paper towels and cleaned up the blood on his face, but he could do nothing about the blood that had soaked into his shirt. Thankfully the shirt was black and as long as no one touched it, they would not realize that it was drenched in blood. After cleaning it up and staunching the bleeding to his best ability, he got some bandages from his backpack and covered the cut with it. He hoped that it would hold until he got home and did a more proficient job with it. He looked back in the mirror at his beat up face and almost broke down crying. He was weak. He could not even work up the courage to tell anyone about the bullying anymore because it would lead to more problems in the future.

After recollecting himself, he slung his back pack around his undamaged shoulder and headed out of the school. He walked down the empty side roads to get to his neighborhood. It took almost a half an hour, but he arrived at his house. The house was a small suburban rancher that had no distinguishing features. It was a plain white washed house with the grass that needed to be mowed. He glanced at the driveway even though he knew that his father was not there yet as always. he was working late again and would stay there until past dinner where he would head straight to bed only to wake up early in the morning and head off to work the next day.

Isaac understood why he did it even if he hated his father for it. When his mother had died of a heart attack years before, it had broke his heart and he could not stand to be in the house that were filled with so many memories so he would work all the time. Isaac even had a sneaking suspicion that his father did not want to see him anymore because he looked too much like his mother.

He glanced at the time and found that it was 5 in the afternoon so he had 7 hours until he would go into the new VMMORPG game that he had unwrapped and ready to go, would activate and he could start. From what he remembered from the beta, Gun Gale Online was a hyper-realistic simulator that did all it could to simulate life. It had a persistent damage system that could only be healed by doctors or certain items means. Not like the other games where if you get damaged all you had to do was slap a bandage on it and it would heal missing limb like it was a small cut. The FullDive technology was a new advancement in science that would revolutionize the field. It blocked all signal from the body and directed all the brain's signal into the machine. It allowed for natural fluid movement in all direction in-game that makes combat that much harder and that much more enjoyable.

The hours pass slowly for Isaac as he waits for the clock to strike midnight so that he could start up the game. He glanced at the clock and it showed 11:59 at night. His father had arrived several hours ago and without a word to Isaac went up to his room and went to bed. Completely ignoring his existence in the house. Even though Isaac reasoned with himself that it should not affect him, it still hurt that his father did not even acknowledge him anymore. He pushed those feeling down when the clock struck midnight.

"Link start," Isaac commanded the Nerve-gear that would grant him access to the game. The world faded to black and then it turned white. Isaac saw a big log in screen. He entered his username as [Fox] and his password and started the long and tedious process of designing his avatar.

The game prompted him to pick his gender and character type. He decided that he wanted a character that barely resembled him. One that would not get him bugged by those who thought he was a woman. He made his avatar be the kind of person that would be terrifying if people met him in a dark alleyway. Whereas he was 5'8" his avatar was a giant at 6'3" of pure muscle and his long black hair was replaced with a military buzz along with a jaw that would be more on place with an action movie star. Instead of having his stormy grey eyes, [Fox] had brown almost black eyes. This was the kind of person that Isaac wanted to be. One that nobody picked on and could face any challenge confidently. After fine tuning certain things like skin color which he made to match his own slightly pale skin, and other small things that did not make much of a difference in character development he started the beginning stats for his character. He looked over the attributes of the game. There were,

AGI (Agility) - determines movement speed of a character along with the amount of stamina one has.

VIT (Vitality) - determines health of a character.

DEX (Dexterity) - determines accuracy of a player and ability to hit targets.

STR (Strength) - determines the carrying capacity and ability to wield certain guns (LMG and heavy weapons) along with how much recoil effects aim.

DEF (Defense) - determines the defense of a player and how much damage is taken each time the player is damaged.

Isaac was always comfortable being a fast mover that was decently strong so that he could deal with the recoil of his weapons and if need be switch into close combat and dish out the damage there. With that being said he place most of his points in AGI and then into STR and spread the remaining points into DEX so he could hit targets accuratly and some in VIT so he could take a hit.

After his character was created he stepped into the world and found himself in a field outside of a large city. It was the [Starting City] that was spread over a couple of miles at its widest. Fox, as he was now calling himself, immediately went to the weapons dealer and bought a side arm to take care of the smaller monsters and save up money for his favorite weapon, the HK416. It became his favorite weapon during the beta when he found one on the corpse of a bandit and from that point on it never left his side.

After buying his Beretta m9 pistol from the starter shop he had enough leftover to buy the basic armor set and began the quests in the area. The monsters that were found around the starting city were pushovers. They were not much of a challenge and all they served as were target dummies for new characters and free experience points. Fox accepted all the quests that he could in the area headed out into the wild alone as he would always would.

He shot his final bullet and killed the last of the creatures that the quest wanted dead. When the last boar was shot, he got a confirmation message that said he leveled up again from 4 to 5. After spending close to three hours purely in the field shooting his gun and killing the animals he had advanced in the levels quickly. Fox brought up his menus and began allocating the points with his new level up. With the level it also began his path into skill trees. The ones that he immediately picked were [Battle Healing] which was basically regeneration and [Night vision] so that he could continue battling in the dark. Fox glanced towards his status on the side of his HUD. He found that the hunger bar was about half and he was running low on ammunition for his pistol, so he decided to stop hunting and questing and started off to the [Starting City]. On the way there a bells sounded and it echoed across the land.

Lights started to gather around him and he recognized it as a teleportation animation. Fox thought it was odd for them to choose this way of announcing something, but it may just be something special for the very first VMMORPG to be released.

The lights faded and he landed in the square that was packed with thousands of people. It was the main square of the [Starting City] Everyone was looking around confused about why they were brought there. Fox settled back against a wall and waited for the announcement. He debated leaving so that he could go buy the HK416 he was working towards and replenish his stocks. His armor was also starting to show signs of wear and tear from the constant battles that he was getting into.

In the end he decided to stay and bought a sandwich from the store that was just inside the stands and ate while watching the crowd get more and more rowdy. He heard some snippets of not being able to log off and one guy was complaining about how his pizza was going to get cold. Fox ignored these in favor of eating and reading a book that he bought that explained the mechanics of how to manage and build guns. The game was obsessed with realism where one had to know exactly how to build something to build it or it would not work. You had to know the intricacies of the weapon to build it and if you didn't, trial and error was not recommended when test firing guns. After you choose the gun, then you had to get the specific parts that would go to the weapon before you built it. There was no replacing parts if you wanted it to function properly. There was no menu that you pick and choose from, it was all in books that you kept on your person. The only thing that had that had a menu and help were the bullets because it would automatically seperate the amount of gunpowder that one would need for the caliber.

Eventually the lights dimmed around the square, even the sun seemed to have lost some of its luster when a large transparent figure appeared in front of the crowd. Fox recognized this person immediately. It was Kayaba Akihiko the head developer of the Nerve-gear software that allowed GGO to be created. He also was the head of Argus the company that created the game. He was projected in an American military uniform with medals adorning his chest and had a beret on his head. Other than that, the Japanese man looked exactly like he did in real life.

"Players, I welcome you all to my world!" He said in a loud booming voice that everyone in the square could hear.

Instantly there was silence and everyone looked towards the tall imposing man. "And in my world there are no need for disguises!" A ping indicated that Fox had received an item. He looked into his inventory and found a [hand mirror]. Fox was curious and clicked on the new item and it came to being. He looked into it and found that it was a normal mirror. The mirror was not special, but what he saw in it was. When he looked into the mirror, he saw his face looking back at him. Not Fox's face, but Isaac's. He had his long hair flowing around his shoulders unbound and his feminine face. That was not the only thing that changed, he shrunk down to his stature in the real world and now occupied the skinny body that he hated. He looked around and found many people looking in the mirror and he was not the only one that had changed. Everywhere people faded before being replaced with their real bodies. Some grew taller while most lost some height. Height was not the only thing that increase. Most of the players increased in width as well. He looked around and found that most of the women that were in the crowd changed to men and what was disturbing was that their clothes did not change with them.

"My name is Kayaba Akihiko as some of you may already know. Right now, I am the only person who can control this world." He paused for a bit then continued on with his speech. "I think that most of you have discovered that the logout button has disappeared from the main menu. This is not a bug; it is all part of [Gun Gale Online]'s system."

"Wha..." Fox's jaw goes slack and he and everyone else that did not know that the logout button was missing immediately opened their menu and searched for the button. It was not there and no matter how hard he looked through every single menu he could not find it. The logout button was missing and he did not know why, but knew that he would not be clueless for long.

"You will be stuck in here until the game is completed and all 100 sectors of this land is complete." GGO was made up of sections each had its own area of varying sizes. The starting section was one of the biggest and was in the middle of the country that GGO was made in. Certain land barriers prevented the skipping of zones along with invisible walls if one got over the land barriers somehow.

"Understand that this is no longer a game. The moment that your health hits 0" He pauses for dramatic effect as if playing with thousands of people lives were like announcing the winner of an award. "You die in the real world. This is a death game now and your life hangs in the balance. on a side note, the disruption or dismantling of the Nerve-gear from the outside is strictly forbidden. If these things are attempted then an electromagnetic signal will fry your brain and kill you. We already have people out to collect your bodies and they will be well cared for during your stay here. Sadly some we did not get to in time and have already passed away." He pauses and glances down at something that only he could see. "I have to regrettably inform you that during your brief stay here, 395 people have died. Their names will be recorded on the [Wall Of The Fallen] that will be found in the square." He swept his hand out to the side and everyone looked to find a wall that housed names and how they had died. Some said 'killed by monster' and then specified and a few of them had already said 'died from disruption of Nerve-gear'.

"That will be all, I will be waiting for you at the end." His form immediately flickered out and left a deathly silent crowd milling around the square. Fox could not believe his ears, he goes into a game to escape his life and instead of getting a fun getaway he gets a death game. He must have been a bastard in a previous life or something for karma to do that to him.

Isaac glanced around to see that the people in the square each reacted differently. Some people started to scream and break down where they stood. Others panicked and ran around like a chicken with their heads cut off while shouting nonsense or calling for help. Others took it in strides and gathered into groups to discuss plans. Fox was part of the group that left the square to get away from everything. The news had not yet sunk in for Fox yet and he had yet to start panicking, but knew that it would only be a matter of time before it started.

Fox wandered down the streets and found himself where he always found himself when he was upset in the beta of the game. Underneath a small oak tree that was off to the side and out of the way of normal traffic in the city. No one ever came around because there was nothing in the area for most players and that suited Fox just fine. He sat on the ground sat on the ground and just stared at the sky. Slowly the news came to him and he started to hyperventilate and his thoughts went into a frenzy. He felt like crying, laughing, and screaming at the same time, and he stayed that way until his rational mind came back.

Ultimately after getting the panic out of his system. He calmed himself down and stared at the sky. As he laid there, the sun was falling and the moon was rising. Fox found himself thinking that even though the game would probably be the death of him, he could not help but marvel at how beautiful the sky was, he never took the time to actually watch it before in the game because it seemed like such a waste of time.

Something was missing from his spot and it took awhile to place it. His guitar. Back in beta Fox was always attracted to the idea of instruments in games and bought a guitar to test it out. After a couple hours of learning how to play chords and read note sheets he sat on the ground under the tree and spent hours playing and experimenting with it. Fox got up from the cold ground and walked to the only shop that was nearby. The music store was full of cheap instruments and play sheets for them, and got a [Guitar]. Fox went back to his spot and tried to calm his mind by doing such a mundane and normal activity as playing the guitar.

He decided on a game plan for what to do next. Several minutes of playing later he got up and headed to the market district. The market district was a normally bustling place with hundreds of players and NPC's walking around buying things.

The NPC's were works of genius with the CARDINAL system that replicated humans behavior and reactions. You could almost fool yourself into thinking that you were talking to people the only problem was some of the oddities in the system like how some of them talked and certain questions they did not answer or did not answer properly. Even with those errors it was the best ai to date.

He bought his HK416 and some 5.56 ammunition in the gun shop that was almost empty of people. The ones there seemed to be in shock and just staring at the displays. He slung it along his back and went to the tailor that he always did to buy armor to grab his wardrobe.

After he made his purchases, Fox went off to an inn where he rented one of the only available rooms left. When he got into the room. He sat on the bed changed from his new clothes which consisted of a [Duelist Longcoat], which was basically a black coat that fell passed his knees with straps and buckles to secure weapons on it along with the segmented metal that went from his shoulder halfway down his forearm as sort of a pauldron. His jacket opened to show his his black military style pants and boots and leather armor, into something more comfortable. He changed into a t-shirt and some khaki shorts that were the default casual wear for the game.

For the next couple hours he stared at a wall trying to come to terms with how thing were going to be and what he needed to do. Eventually he laid down on the soft bed. It still astonished him about how much detail they put into the game, but now it made sense. It had to simulate reality for people to live in for the next couple years and they could not have people go mad from a horribly designed environment. That nearly brought him into another panic induced fit, but he pushed it down and after laying in bed for over an hour. Fox fell asleep to the sounds of people shuffling around outside the inn.


	2. Chapter 2: Planning for the fight

Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online in any way shape or form. I wish i did, but the honor of getting all that sweet, sweet mula do not go to me. All the rights are to their respective owners. The only thing that I own are the fingers that are typing this story and the plot line.

Chapter 2

Just outside of the main dungeon of sector 1. Fox was fighting a pack of [Tigers]. Most of them were lying on the ground, dead or out of the fight. The only one up and still able to fight was the leader of the pack. Both of them circled each other slowly, looking for an opening to a quick kill. They continued until the tiger had enough and started to charge. Fox fired the last bullet in his magazine at the charging tiger. It jumped to the left and when it landed it continued forward, but that did not deter Fox. He dropped his HK416 and it fell and got caught by the strap he had wrapped around his torso.

Fox drew his pistol and fired shot after shot into the [Alpha Tiger] until it dropped dead in front of him. He holstered his weapons and reloaded his rifle so that he would be prepared for the next attack.

It had been over a month since the game started and people were finally leaving the city to be start trying to clear the area and dungeon to get to the next sector.

The last that Fox had heard was that the people were just getting to the point where they could begin contemplating fighting the boss. Fox had hit that point a week or two ago when he had hit level 10. Now at level 13, the only reason that he had not tried was because even though he was above almost everyone else in level and power, it still was not enough that he could not solo a raid boss.

*Ping* a notification warning sounded for Fox, indicating that he got a message from someone. He checked his messages and found that there was a message waiting for him.

It was from one of the only people that he kept in contact with regularly and that was mostly because it was a good business endeavor. [Argo the rat] was a cruel and greedy woman, quoted saying that she would 'sell her grandmother for cash and even throw her uncle in for an extra fee', but she also had the largest and most reliable information network of anyone in the game. If you could match her prices, which were steep, than you could know anything.

She even wrote strategy books that were given out for free from the vendors in the city to help clear the game and keep the players alive. He opened the message and saw that it was an alert to head back to the city.

The message told Fox that there was to be a meeting in the main square of the [Starting City] to discuss the battle plan for the sector's boss. They were meeting at noon, so Fox had to book it to the city to make it there in time. He thanked god that he had leveled up his [Sprint] skill to an insane degree so that as long as he had the stamina, he could run as long as he wanted.

On the way to the city he saw that he was not the only one that was heading to the meeting late. A man in black that was much like Fox except he did not have the longcoat and was carrying a sword was running into the entrance of the city as well. After many twist and turns, he entered the square and was met with the sight of around fifty people milling around a raised platform waiting for the meeting to begin.

On the platform was a tall man that just started his speech when Fox entered the square. He was cloaked in a brown jacket and blue pants. The color of his pants matched the color of his hair. His bangs framed his face while the rest of his hair was cut short. Along with outfit, he had a standard m16 slung around his shoulder.

"I guess that is everybody." He said over the noise of the crowd. Chatter slowly petered off while everyone looked up at him to see what he had to say. "Hello! my name is Diabel and I have called this meeting to discuss the attack on the boss of this section. At the end of the meeting I will be handing out maps that detail where we will be heading in the dungeon."

Fox did not need said maps because he had been essentially living in first section dungeon for the past 4 days. He knew almost every nook and cranny there was. Fox had looted some of the harder objects to find that he knew no one would reach. He had found the attachments that he had equipped on his replacement HK416. He had found a more powerful one in one of the side dungeons.

"Based on information gotten from Argo's [strategy guide] from the beta. The boss of this floor will most likely be a large boar called [Anibal The King Of The Boars]. The trick to fighting this boss is that it has only a couple of attack patterns. One is to charge and then thrash around trying to hit everyone nearby with it's tusks. The second and deadlier combination is that it will stomp on the ground and cause a daze effect. This will allow it to jump in the air and crush whoever is nearby." Diabel explained to the crowd. They all stood in rapt attention. Taking notes on how the boss fought and what to expect. "Around the boss are his guards. These guards will be [Elite large boars]. Each of them will be around level 8 with double the health of regular [large boars]. We have to assign a group of people to deal with these as the main party focuses on Anibal." The blue haired soldier continued explaining the plans on how to dodge and cover each other in the situation that they needed to assist a party member. After close to an hour of debate, the plan was just being finely tuned.

"If we do this than we will succeed and clear the first sector. When we do that, everyone thats waiting in this city will become hopeful once more and we will be able to win this game and go home to our families." He said closing the meeting.

After Diabel ended his speech and everyone around him started to clap. Suddenly someone yelled over the clapping and walked forward. He strutted forward and got on the stage. "My name is Kibaou and there are some people in this crowd that has something to say for themselves." He shouted over everyone. They all looked at him quizzically, not understand what he was referring to. "I am talking about those that selfishly left all of us behind and grabbed the best quests and the most money and hoarded it for themselves. They left us high and dry and we did not know what was going on, but the minute that we entered this game. They left us with nothing! " He elaborated. Diabel looked like he understood what Kibaou was alluding to and he looked pissed.

It took Fox a bit longer to realize what he was saying. He was blaming all the beta testers for leaving the new players to fend for themselves and that they all had the responsibility of over 2000 lives on their shoulders. Frankly it angered Fox as well because not all the people killed were newbies. Some were beta players and others were killed through other means like suicide.

"That is why every single beta player should come up here and beg for forgiveness of all of us!" He order to all the present beta testers. "If you had helped us rather than there would not be as many losses as we have had!"

Diabel walked across the stage and tapped Kibaou on the shoulder. When he turned around to see what the problem was, he was met with Diabel's fist as he back handed him off the stage and into the crowd. Kibaou landed in a heap in front of the crowd of people. Fox was tempted to start clapping and cheering when Diabel hit Kiboau and he could tell he was not alone in that aspect. He could also tell that many of those gathered around agreed with Kiboau and were searching around for the beta players.

"It is not our fault that people are dying!" Diabel yelled at the man laying in the heap on the ground, confirming that he was indeed a beta player. Which was not the best thing to do in a situation where tempers were high and any wrong word might spark a fight. "So you think that us sharing everything we had would have helped. Sharing all the money we gathered, the equipment we collected, and every little tidbit of information would have stopped people from killing themselves, or the ones that died because people outside of the game tampered with their device? You already have as much information from the beta as we do! I'm sure that every one of you here have read the [strategy guide] that you can pick up in most towns around here! How do you think those books get published so quickly?"

"But..." He tried to interrupt his tirade to defend his argument.

"But nothing!" Diabel cut him off. "The only way that the information in these books can be published that fast is through the work of the beta testers that know of the area before hand. They did this so that people like you would not do something stupid and die, you little shit!"

"What about all those that have died because you did not help them? Instead you ran away with your tails between your legs so that you could get a head start on everyone and grab all the good weapons and armor for yourselves? Leaving nothing for any of us!" He accused, grasping for straws. He was being backed up with a majority of the crowd. For every 1 person on the side of the beta testers there were 5 on the side against them. Kiboau started regaining steam when he realized that the crowd was on his side. "You think that we didn't know what you did. You publish that information after all the equipment that would help us was gone and we get the left overs! It is all because of the [Beaters] that we are stuck in this game to begin with. That is why every last one should be brought up here and apologize to all of us!"

Suddenly someone roughly grabbed Fox's arm and started dragging him forward. Everyone turned towards him and stared as the man continued dragging him forward. Acting on old habits from his school days. Fox did not resist the bigger man dragging him forward. Fox started flashing back to his life during school when his two classmates would do this to him and lead him towards a beating. He thought that he escaped it from his world, but suddenly it was happening again in a different world with different people. Rage started to build and his world was slowly becoming red.

"This bitch is a [Beater]! there is no way that someone not a [beater] would be able to be at such a high level with all this gear! She should have helped us get to this level, instead this little cunt left us high and dry with nothing!" The giant said lifting Fox up by the arm. He was still in a daze and did not respond when lifted. He glanced around to see what everyone was doing and if any help was on the way.

Most were standing there sneering at him and the ones that were sympathetic towards him showed only pity and made no move to help as to not draw attention to themselves. Diabel looked like he wanted to help and was trying to push through the crowd, but was stopped by a line of people holding him back. The longer that the man held his arm the more Fox angry he felt about being stuck in a situation that he used to be helpless in. Now that he could do something about it, he was just letting it happen and it disgusted him. It made him feel weak and useless. It was when that thought entered his head, he decided that he would do whatever he could to stop it from feeling that way again.

"Put me down," Fox hissed at the man, his voice filled with venom. In response the man shook him and with him being lifted off the ground, his entire body shook with it. The rage was still building in his chest and it was urging to be released. "I said...put me down!" Fox growled out as forcefully as he could, but the man was either a dunce that could not understand tone or did not care. Fox was leaning towards the former rather than the latter.

"It is your fault that all those people are dead! My friend would still be alive if it wasn't for you!" the man shouted, not heeding the warning in Fox's voice. "If you had helped us then he would still be alive! You should be the one dead instead of him!" Some of the crowd cheered while others were still looking on with pity towards Fox. "So little lady, how do you want forgive us? I prefer if you get on your knees, if you know what I mean?" He leered at him. "It is all that you are good for anyway!" That was enough to sent Fox over the edge and give into his anger, and he did so in an instant. Without thinking, he drew his m9 and pressed it flush against the man's head. Fox glared at him with utter loathing in his eyes. "I warned you," He simply stated.

The man's and everyone else's eyes widen at the sight. "Now wait here for a s..." He did not finish because Fox had pulled the trigger by then and repeated the action three more times. The man was protected by the no damage zone. All cities and towns in the game were under a no damage policy so that no matter what, one could not be injured or hurt in a town. So the only thing that happened to the man was that his head was pushed to the side from the bullets hitting him.

The noise of the gun discharging right in front of his ear disoriented the man, coupled with the shock that he had just been shot, froze him in place. Fox broke his grasp very easily. He would not have even been dragged and displayed if he was not lost in memory. He felt weak. He felt like how he did before GGO and that was unacceptable.

Fox dropped to the ground and crouched down before springing up and slammed his knee into the man's head in the blink of an eye. Even with no damage, the kinetic force was not negated and he was lifted off his feet. The man who was well over 6 feet tall flew over a dozen feet away before landing in a heap on top of a passing food cart. Agility may be his main attribute, but strength was a close second. Fox believed in being a well rounded character.

When he landed on his feet, he still had his gun drawn and hardened his eyes at everyone looking at him. Instead of the pity that he once received. All he got was fear and anger at what he had done. At their continued staring, Fox could not help himself and indulged in the first thing that came to mind. He dipped low into a bow while sweeping his arms out to the side, mocking all of them for the sheep that they were. A couple of words from one man was enough for them to start calling for the death of a thousand people. It was probably not a smart idea to antagonize them, but it seemed perfect for the moment.

He spun on his heels and strode out of the square to silence. Even the ambient BGM seemed to have ceased as he left. The only noise was the rustling of clothes. Nobody was moving in the crowd, even the bystanders that were not part of the meeting watched as he left the square.

Once he passed the buildings that marked the end of the main square, it was like a flip was switched and the crowd started yelling and screaming for his blood. Even from down the block, he could hear them as some of them started chasing him. This did not deter him and he just stepped into an alleyway and hopped up a fire escape and utilized his [hide] skill to get away from the crowd. He crouched and watched below him to see when they would get to the alleyway. Sure enough, after a couple seconds pass. The first of the mob round the corner of the alleyway and sprint passed him and to the other side. One thing that he learned when hiding from people that might cause him harm in GGO is that no matter what your [hide] skill is. People rarely ever look up while searching.

After dropping from his fire escape when the last of the crowd passed and he was sure that they were not coming back, he walked out into the street and pulled up the hood on his coat so that no one would see his face.

Soon he was ducking into alleyways to dodge the crowd that had split up to search and took the long way around to his destination, Fox found himself in front of an inn that he thought was safe to stay at without anyone from the crowd finding him and he would not get lynched for walking out his door. When he got in and changed out of his "Work clothes" and into his black cargo shorts and white t-shirt, he realized what he had done.

He had nearly killed a man in cold blood for no reason other than being a jackass who thought that he was a woman. If he had been in the wild and not in the city's safe zone, he would be a murderer and have the blood of someone on his hands. He did not even give the guy a second chance to let him down when it was obvious that he would have. He just gave into his anger and pulled the trigger. Fox slid down the wall and brought his knees up to his chest, with tears running down his face. He stared at nothing and tried to come to terms with what he was becoming because of the death game.

**A.N**

**To view the reference sheet i created and see Fox's stats then head over to my page and it should be posted there.**


	3. Chapter 3: Boss fight

Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online in any way shape or form. I wish i did, but the honor of getting all that sweet, sweet mula do not go to me. All the rights are to their respective owners. The only thing that I own are the fingers that are typing this story and the plot line.

Chapter 3

Fox awoke to the ambient background music. He found that he was still sitting on the floor where he dropped the day prior. It was times like this he was glad that he was in a game. If it had been real, he would have been a mess of cramps and would not be able to move for the rest of the day. He bid farewell to the room that had served him the night and headed out into the city to resupply for his dungeon crawl.

When he exited the inn, he was surprised at the sight that met him. Players were walking in droves down the street, all heading in one direction. Fox went with the flow and followed behind them to see what was happening. He caught snippets of conversation from some people, but after listening for several minutes, they did not shed any light on what was happening. The farther he followed the people through the twists and turns of the city, the more people that began to appear. When he got near the main road, he heard cheering and merriment. A strange sound in GGO. The closer he got to the road, the thicker the crowd got, until they were almost impassable, but after worming his way through the gaps between people, using his small stature. he saw why they had all lined up.

The players that were in the meeting were marching down the street towards the exit of the city. The street was lined with people coming to see them off with hope in their eyes. In the eyes of the crowd, this march was the first step to beating the game. In front of the pack of players was Kibaou and his entourage of Beater haters. The man that Fox had shot in the head, was right up there with him. Everyone that crowded around Kibaou looked around with obvious glee at all the attention they were receiving. The rest of the frontline fighters followed behind him in a single file line.

"Idiots, It's like they want to die!" Fox thought to himself watching Kibaou strut down the street, radiating arrogance. They abandoned a good, level headed leader with prior knowledge of the dungeon, for a hate filled little man that was too cowardly to do anything for himself and placed all the blame on people that were stuck in the same situation as he was.

He searched the line to see if Diabel was there. Fox hoped that he was Ok and that his stupidity did not cause him any problems. His hope plummeted farther and farther as he stood, watching most of the line pass. Just when he was going to give up looking for him, he saw Diabel near the back of the the troop, looking a bit worse for wear than the day before, but still alive and breathing.

Fox regretted his rash action even more when he saw what had happened to Diabel, the only one in the group that tried to help rather than watch his humiliation. Upon closer inspection, Diabel's equipment looked to be ragged and worst than yesterday's and the bags under his eyes indicated he did not get proper rest for the fight ahead. Fox resolved to make it up to him somehow. Fox made to join the troop, but he halted when realized that he was probably not welcomed to the group anymore after the stunt the day before. He contemplated not going with them, but he decided that he would rather die against a level one practice creature than just sitting by while they went out to fight the boss. He refused to be one of the thousands of people in the [Starting City] that waited for the sector to be cleared without doing anything except small fetch quests in the town for pocket change and sitting around doing nothing. He worked too long and too hard at getting to where he was to let that happen.

Fox gently pushed through the crowd and followed the procession down the street. The crowd of jubilant people provided good cover from anyone that may be searching for him.

It took almost an hour of slow strutting, but Kibaou and his band of merry men finally made it out of the [starting city] and began their trek towards the dungeon and to some of them, their dungeon was a couple miles away from the city so it was going to be a long march there. Fox eased his way into the back of the pack and stayed hidden by wearing a cloak and hood combo that hid his body and face from onlookers. It was not a perfect disguise, anyone that looked close enough could make out his face, but he counted on everyone worrying about the dungeon to pay attention to a little tag-along in the group.

As they walked to the dungeon, reality set in for some people. It started with whispering and second guessing their decision. The further the line went, the more the whispering grew until some lost their nerve for the fight before it even began. They decided that they were not going to risk their lives against Anibal and they broke away from the group and fled into the surrounding lands. Some of the members of the line tried to stop them, but as more and more left. They let them go and run away.

The group numbered near a hundred when they left the city, but after about an hour of walking, the number had dwindled slowly to the mid-fifties and even then it dwindled more. Only those that were set on killing the boss and clearing the sector stayed with the group by the time they entered the dungeon.

The dungeon itself was not all that intimidating from the outside, it's entrance was located in a large cave right next to a small scenic lake that sparkled in the sunlight. It would have been a great place to relax and spend the day if it was not for the bands of roving monsters. It was the inside that scared people away from the dungeon. The cave was lit with torches, so sections would be dim and some were even pitch black. This played on a player's morale and caused panic among the players that enter in small groups or alone in Fox's case. The beginning floors were not so bad, as they were created with brick floors and walls that made it seem like any generic dungeon from other games. It reminded Fox of old dungeon crawl games. The difference between the first couple floor and the ones that were on lower levels was that, the farther down the tunnel you went, the more and more it started to become more of a cave rather than a structure. By the time, one would reach the bottom floor where the boss resided, the walls were rough and showed signs of erosion. The roof would be uneven and players would need to watch their heads when walking because it got so low. The floors became a fighting hazard because it was littered with rocks and holes that were waiting to catch someone's foot and ruin a fight.

Everyone met outside of the cave to discuss the battle plan and prepare for a couple hours of trekking through the dark caves. Kibaou had Diabel pass out the map of the dungeon to people that were not at the meeting and needed to know where to go. After a rather unmotivating pep talk from Kibaou, the group set out to clear the dungeon and kill the boss.

They got through the first floor with minor difficulty. It was almost a straight shot to the next floor and with no one branching off the main path, they got to the next floor easily. The next few floors were like a harder as they went when more variety of enemies appeared and the dungeon became less linear. This pattern continued as they went deeper into the dungeon.

After over an hour of grueling marching and fighting. Fox was getting fed up with how slow the group was moving. They stopped after every fight and moved at a snails pace down the halls. Fox was frustrated that he had to keep his head down and downplayed his abilities so that they did not recognize him before the boss room. If they found him before the boss, then they may kill him or bar him from fighting. After what seemed to be an eternity of moving slower than a slime, the raiding party settled down at the stairwell to the next floor, where a safe zone was set up. Everyone sat or leaned against walls, eating or drinking to replenish their stamina.

"The next floor is the boss floor, nobody has been down there before so we don't have that many details on what are down there so watch your step. The data gathered by beta testers may be accurate, but it is entirely possible that the entire boss fight has been changed so that the data is obsolete." Diabel advised to the resting party. Some people took note and listened with rapt attention while others, like kibaou and the people around him, ignored Diabel as he tried to help and give tips."This is the boss floor so the enemies that are found here are going to be a lot more powerful, so be careful when you face against them and keep a health crystal handy." Diabel continued talking and helping those that needed some tips for several minutes while the group was resting.

After Diabel finished talking. Kibaou stood up with his small group of followers and directed the everyone that it was time to leave the safe area and continue on to the next floor to kill the boss.

The floor below them was made up by a large cave system. The walls were wet and gleaming from water that seeped through the ceiling. The roof was covered in stalactites and they dripped water constantly, making the cave sound like it was constantly raining. The floor was covered in cracks that were a couple inches wide and puddles that were as deep as a foot in some places. All the normal lighting that was found on the other floors was gone as there were only torches every couple hundred feet. With all that combined the boss floor of the cave was a safety hazard just to walk through, much less fight through.

The tunnels that laced the cave were all small and at the widest, only two people could walk abreast down a single hallway. This led to bottlenecking with the enemies that were lingering in the tunnels and more injuries of the leading members. No one had died yet, but a couple people got their health dropped in the red zone and they had to teleport out those that would not be helpful in the upcoming fights. The medics on hand were not skilled enough to replace lost limbs or severe injuries, so all they could do was bandage the wounds and stop the bleeding before sending them on their way.

After fighting down the tunnels against all manners of baddies and putting up with rough terrain for twenty minutes, they finally arrive to a large door that indicates the boss' room.

"Everyone stop," Said a man in front. "Behind this door is the boss, so we are going to rest up here and heal. Everyone prepare healing items and teleporting crystals just in case this gets ugly and we need to leave in a jiffy." He went next to the door and sat down to check over his gear. Fox followed suit and went into a corner and checked his assault rifle. He replaced the regular lead bullets that he had been firing earlier with the hollow points and Full metal jackets he reserved for the fight. Whilst doing the same thing with his pistol, he checked out the room that he was in. The room itself was quite large and the walls were smoother than the ones in the tunnel that they just left. The stalactites and stalagmites formed columns that lined the walls of the room and the roof was not so low hanging that one would have to hunch to get under. The door itself was ten feet tall and widened out to eight was made of elegantly carved wood with pictures of boars and other woodland creatures engraved on it. It would have been very beautiful had it not be the only thing between the party and the boss.

Torches around the room, were alight with dull orange flames. The dimly lit room coupled with the flickering light gave the room foreboding and menacing air that permeated through the group. Fox pushed down the feeling of dread and glanced around to look at how the other party members were handling things. Only to find that he was not the only one that was getting a bad feeling, if the looks of fear on their faces were any indicator.

Of the thirty people left, only one other was not looking in fear at the door. Fox saw that the teenager wearing all black with a sword strapped to his hip was the only other one to not be showing his fear and was calmly talking to his companion. Fox glanced at the name of the player and found he went by the name [Kirito].

By Kirito's side was a woman dressed in an off white blouse-shorts combo along with her outfit was a submachine gun that she had by her side. She did not seem as calm as Kirito about the fight ahead and was looking around nervously while they stood in front of the door waiting for the show to begin. He found that she went by the username [Asuna].

As if they could feel his gaze on them, both of them looked over at Fox at the same time, and gave him a once over. They stared at him for several seconds while examining who he was. While they stared at him, Fox feared that he was about to be found out when Kirito whispered something to Asuna and they both turned around and started chatting to themselves.

"That was too close," He breathed out the breath that he did not know that he was holding. He did not want to be found out and have Kibaou incite the people into a lynch mob to get him and the sad thing was that Fox could see the small cowardly man could do that to him rather easily. He had the ability to rile people up to a great degree, if the meeting was a good indicator.

Kibaou and his entourage stood up and called out to everyone. "It is time to begin, so everyone, get up and lets go." When he did so, everyone who was sitting stood up and readied their gear for a fight. People unholstered their weapons and loaded them with their best ammunition and took out healing crystals and put them where they could be grabbed easily. The few that had explosives took them out. Fox readied a couple of his grenades, but save a few just in case they did not work that well. Kibaou and another man strutted up to the door and pushed it open. They held it open because if the door shut while people were inside, then the room was locked and they would have to wait for them to be done before they could anyone else could enter.

Everyone piled in through the doorway and found themselves in a large room. It was at least hundred feet in every direction with the walls lined in torches. At the other side of the room, Fox could make out the shape of something huge and a few people with good enough [night vision] saw the shape as well.

Suddenly the door slammed shut and when Fox looked back, he saw that everyone had made it into the room and they officially started the fight. [Anibal The King Of The Boars] stepped out of the darkness and revealed himself. It was an extremely large boar standing at least 15 feet tall and was 30 feet long. It's face was covered with scars and it's tusks were chipped and covered in blood. Everyone just stood and stared at the monster while it walked forward. Kibaou was shaking in his boots, Fox noticed, and Kirito was drawing his sword from his hip.

"Everybody scatter!" Diabel shouted as he took control of the situation when it was obvious that Kibaou would not. That was all it took for everyone to take action and start moving instead of standing in front of a raging monster stupidly. "Support groups! When the guards come out, keep them busy!" He ordered. "Everyone else, fire!"

When they were given the green light to attack, bullets started to fly at Anibal. One of Anibal's three health bars started to drop as the bullets impacted on him. The boar did not even flinch from the dozens of new holes opening up on its shoulder and neck.

When he took damage, it was time for the boars who acted as guards to their king to appear. The boars dropped from the ceiling around the edges of the room, and the people in the support group started to distract and take them out.

Anibal charged forward, but the group was so spread out that he could only aim for one person at a time. Bullets followed him across the room and the person he was charging towards ran out of the way. He did not get far though because Anibal started thrashing his tusks around madly and it clipped the man. His health went from full to half in an instant and he was thrown to the ground away from the boar.

The next couple charges yielded no casualties as everyone dodged out of the way properly after seeing the first person get hit. Finally the first health bar finished and the boar paused for a second. Everyone warily looked at it until it suddenly charged, much faster than before. It squealed what sounded like a battle cry and struck a man who was caught by surprise that the new found speed. Anibal eviscerated the man with his tusks and dropped the man past the red zone, thus claiming the first death in battle. His death cry was heard by everyone as they saw him impaled and killed by the boar. Fox stared at the dead man. This was the first time that he had ever seen a player die, sure the deaths of the ai were convincing, but Fox always knew that it was the ai that was being killed so it did not affect him all that much. This was different though, this was a real man who's life just got snuffed out in an instant.

At the sound of another battle cry from the boar, he was back to his senses and riddling the boar with bullets again. The others took his lead and continued the assault with a vengeance. The death of a comrade made the fight more personal. The boar raised its front legs. The few that reacted in time, jumped in the air above the trembling ground when he brought them down. The few that were not, got stunned. The king of the boars jumped high in the air, then came down on top of one of the players. He was flattened and blood sprayed out from under the boar and painted the ground in it. The return to the battle from the newest death was quicker than last time, but then there were around a dozen that decided they did not want to risk dying anymore. They took out a crystal teleported out of the room. seven of the twelve that left were part of the support group so they were suddenly spread thin and while fixing the line, they allowed a few of the guards to break the line and head towards the main body.

Several of them charged at the main assault group and at the shout of pain, Fox turned and found a short man hit in the back by a guard. He turned his attention to the guards that were heading towards them momentarily and killed three of them before they reached the others. When they did it was a quick bout that left several people injured and bleeding and the boars dead on the ground. Turning back to Anibal, Fox noticed that another bar of health had dropped and it paused again. This time, its eyes turned blood red and it stomped on the ground in fury. Fox's eyes widened at this. The boar did not do this in the beta and he had no idea what new attacks came with it.

Anibal decided that it was time to resume its attack and charged towards a group of people.

They all jumped out of the way, but Anibal's new attack appeared. When it neared them, it thrusted it's head towards the two jumping away and caught them with his razor sharp tusks. The two screamed in pain as the tusks took out most of their life bars when it removed one of their legs and slashed across their torso. Then they were thrown away like ragdolls and landed in a heap across the room. The hit and subsequent landing was enough to remove what little remained of their health. They both died next to each other. This new development caused fear to spread through the ranks and when some people looked at each other in with terror in their eyes. They reached into their pockets and pulled out a glowing blue crystal.

Fox noticed this and tried to stop them before they activated them, but were too late. Seven of the remaining people left teleported back to the city like cowards, condemning them to battle the raging boar alone. The only ones left were Kibaou, Kirito, Asuna, Diabel, Fox, and two others. Most of the support party disappeared and left only one of them to hold of the guards. It was only through sheer luck that the guard boars finally stopped spawning and the remaining ones were in bad enough condition that they could be put down easily by anyone left in the group. Kirito ran circles around the boar and attacked it's flank by stringing together strikes with lightning quick slashes that left the hide of the boar resembling strips of rags, rather than skin. Asuna was finishing off the remaining guards and covering Kirito. Diabel and the two other men were spread around the room firing at the king while Kibaou stood near the door and looked like he would bolt any minute. The only thing that kept him there seemed to be his pride, but that was quickly being overshadowed by fear, Fox stood near Diabel and assisted in draining the boar's health.

A couple minutes of dodging and the boar was on it's last legs. Suddenly it spun in a circle and knocked Kirito out of the way in a blast of wind. Fox paused, that move was never used in the beta. Then again, Fox did not party with people that used swords in a gun game so it may have been in it, but never used. Anibal narrowed its eyes in Diabel's direction and started to charge. The boar was way too close for Diabel to get out of the way so he was stuck staring down the boar as it lowered its tusks to impale him. Fox, without thinking, started running towards Diabel to get him out of the way. As he ran, he seemed to get slower and slower and panicked. He thought that something was wrong and found that he was not affected by an ailment, questions raced through his mind until he ceased any other thought than the fact that, at his current speed, he was not going to make it in time so pushed himself to go as fast as he could. At such a high AGI score, he felt that he was suppose to be going much more fast than he currently was, until he looked around and realized that it was not him that was slowing down, but time seemed to be slowing down instead. Fox was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth so when he got close enough to the blue haired man, he grabbed Diabel by the collar of his tunic and threw him out of the way of the charging beast. Once Diabel left his hand, Fox gathered up his strength and leapt to the side to dodge the boar. Diabel cleared the danger zone of the attack with a surprised look on his face, but Fox was not fast enough. He twisted around and found the head of the boar was swinging towards his airborne body so he did the only thing that came to mind. He grabbed both the stock and the barrel of his assault rifle and brought it up like a shield just in the nick of time too. The tusks hit the weapon almost instantly and the moment that it made contact, screeching of shredded metal filled the air. the upper receiver of the rifle was shredded from the grip down to the ejector and the barrel bent around the tusk. After a moment, the gun shattered into polygons and was transported into his inventory as a broken weapon.

The force of the impact sent Fox flying away and he landed on his back. The landing dazed him so he absent mindedly picked himself up off the ground and looked over to the boar. He found that he was still prey of the king of the boars and it was looking right at him with its red beady eyes. Anibal snorted and pawed at the ground to indicate another charge. Fox ran to the side, but anibal was far enough away that it adjusted course to intercept him. The world started slowing down again for Fox when he noticed that he was not fast enough to get out of the way.

Fox quickly drew his pistol and aimed for the most sensitive part of the boar that he could get to from his position. The eyes. Fox rapidly shot half his clip towards one of its eyes and when he finally blinded it, he unloaded the rest into the other half of its face. it took until the very last bullet to land a direct hit and fully blind the boar.

The instant that the charging boar lost its sight, it veered to the right and Fox was barely able to roll out of the way. Fox turned and watched as it passed him and did the only sensible thing to do in such a situation. He grabbed a couple grenades from one of the many straps on his longcoat and prepped them to be used.

Fox sent a quick prayer to whatever deity that was watching from above that he would not kill himself in such a stupid way, and pulled all the pins on the grenades.

He held the grenades for a second until all the levers came of with a series of pings. Now that the tuses were lit and the grenades active, Fox drew back his arm and threw the bundle of grenades at the creature and curled in a ball on the floor to protect himself.

After a moment or two of waiting, Fox feared that they may have been duds and he was doomed to die curled on the ground against the very first boss of the game until...

_**BOOM!**_

All of the grenades exploded at the same time and the explosion caused the floor to shake at the intensity of the explosion. The shockwave hit Fox that was soon followed by the intense heat and the stinging of shrapnel. As fast as the trembles and fire arrived, it was gone and the only thing that remained was the ringing in his ears and the pain in his back. Fox slowly and painfully picked himself up off the ground and looked at what remained of the overgrown pig.

Anibal was most definitely not alive anymore, he was nearly ripped into small slightly burned pieces. When Fox observed his handiwork, he felt sick to his stomach. Both of Anibals front legs and one of his hind legs were gone from the joint down. His fur was none existent, the fire took care of that. The only remaining skin that they could see was blackened and burned beyond recognition. Its face was better in that aspect, the eyes were completely gone and its face was covered in cuts that ranged from small shrapnel holes to canyons that had opened on his flesh.

Fox examined his gear and found that most of it was still in good condition, considering the grenades and all. His boots were a little worn and his longcoat had several holes and burns would be needed to be repaired. Other than that, his wreck of a rifle, and the missing half of his health. He was fine. A big message popped up in his HUD.

**Congratulations: [Fox]!**

**You have earned a bonus for getting the final hit on: [Anibal The King Of The Boars]!**

**you have received:**

**[Key to secret room] x1**

**20,000 col**

Fox went straight into his menus to find what had caused the time slowing ability. After scrolling around his skills menu for a bit. He found it. At the bottom of the menu was a new entry that was not there before the fight, it was labeled as unique skill: [Reflex]. The skill was described to increase to flow of information that registered per second to his brain and in turn gave the effect of slowing time down for the user. After checking on that, he could not shake the feeling that he was forgetting something. He exited out of his menu before he turned around to view the remaining party members. He found that all the remaining people in the room were staring at him in shock and disbelief. He looked down at himself and found that the large cloak that he had been using the entire time in the dungeon was completely gone and provided no anonymity for him anymore.

"Well shit." Fox sighed quietly, but in the deathly silent room, everyone heard his swear. The urge to bash his head against the wall almost prevailed for a moment until he calmed himself down and realized, though it may make him feel better, losing virtual brain cells would not help the situation he found himself in.

"What are you doing here?" Kibaou screeched as he moved from his position by the door. He appeared to have worked up some courage now that the threat was gone from the room. "How dare you come here just to steal the kill from us!"

"Steal the kill..." Fox blinked owlishly, "What?" he said incredulously. "I came here to assist in the fight against Anibal, not to steal your precious kill!"

Fox glanced around the room to see what the others were doing. Asuna and Kirito were sitting at the sidelines watching while tending to their wounds. They seemed to have figured it out when they stared at him before the boss fight so he found no surprise in their expression. Diabel was doing the same as they were, but he looked like he was ready to jump in if things got out of hand. The other 2 people in the room were sending messages to their friends that the sector had been cleared. They were slapping each other on the back and did not notice the trouble that was brewing across the room.

"You are just like all the beaters, you bitch!" He yelled, "You sit all high and mighty on your throne and you use us, normal people, to get what you want. You took the final strike on purpose so that you could pocket the loot!" Fox could not believe his ears. Was this guy actually that stupid? He voiced as much to the man, obviously antagonizing him, but Fox was not schooled in social situation. His life outside of the game made sure of that. The man seemed to have took exception to the slight at his intelligence. He drew his gun and pointed it at Fox.

"You think that you can get away with this?" He screeched. Fox raised his hands up to ward off the man.  
"I'm not trying to get away with anything. I killed the boss because the boss needed to be killed, not because I wanted what he dropped! Now if you would lower the gun, we can talk about this calmly." Fox said evenly. He glanced to the left and found that Diabel was slowly drawing his pistol from his holster and on his right, Kirito looked apprehensive, but he was readying his sword in case things got out of hand.

"I won't lower my gun! If I do, you will kill me like you did everyone else! You are nothing more than a murdering whore!" Fox was starting to get fed up with Kibaou's ranting and had to fight his temper that was about to rear it's ugly head. Fox shifted slightly his weight slightly for a better position to move if bullets started to fly. "Don't you move! If you move again I will kill you!" he threatened.

"Calm down, Kibaou," Fox said, "What do you want?"

Fox noticed a crazy glint in the man's eyes and knew that whatever was about to happen. It would not be Fox's favor. "I want you and all the other beaters dead." He tightened his grip on his weapon while talking and increased the pressure on the trigger. Right before he fired the round, Fox rolled forward, trying to close the distance between the two. Kibaou shot his pistol and the bullet grazed his back. Right where his heart was moments ago.

Fox willed his new skill [reflex] to activate and as he rolled, things started to get slower. When he was almost out of his roll, his hand flew to the pistol that he kept holstered at his hip. He raised the pistol and took aim. Kibaou adjusted his aim and fired the same time that Fox did.

Fox felt like something had punched his stomach, but he was completely focused on a different target and ignored the pain. Another shot rang out from Fox's gun. Both of his shots had hit exactly where Fox aimed. With a scream and a spray of warm liquid, Kibaou's arm was removed at the elbow and with it, his gun dropped to the floor. Kibaou clutched at his ruined arm and fell with a spray of blood onto the ground. A woman's scream jump startled Fox. He quickly looked over to see if anyone was hit with a stray bullet and found that Asuna was horrified, but Ok and Kirito by her side, was the same. Fox stood up from where he was crouched and wiped off the blood that had splashed on his face and put his pistol back in its holster. Fox glanced at his health and found that it was down another hundred points out of the thousand total, so he was not currently in imminent danger. A quick wrap with bandages and the bleeding was going down to a safer level where his [battle healing] would be able to take over.

Fox looked to Diabel found that he was holstering his weapon, now that it was not needed anymore. He was thankful at that because he probably would not last another battle in his condition. Diabel noticed his gaze and nodded his head in acknowledgement and Fox returned the gesture before striding across the room. He stopped in front of the door across the room and threw it open in one move.

Behind him fireworks went off in the room, frightening the people that were standing there half to day, or in Kibaou case, three-fourth to death. Gongs sounded and an announcement rang out in the room and probably across everywhere in the game. "Dungeon number 1 has been cleared! You may now proceed to sector 2!" Said a feminine automated voice over the speaker. Nobody in the boss room cheered however. It had been a hollow victory with four comrades paying the ultimate price in return for advancing. Everyone made for the new exit to get away from the room tainted by death. Fox left the room first followed by almost everyone. One of the men went to Kibaou and had him teleport to a city to get his arm healed.

The hallway that led from the room was almost pitch black, but at the end of it was a light. Fox trailed his hand against the wall as he went along so that if something tripped him up and have him fall face first into the ground. As he carefully trailed his fingertips over the wall, he hit something. Fox traced his fingers around the wall and found a object protruding from the wall. When he grabbed the object a prompt appeared.

**To open [Door] you require:**

**[Key to secret room] x1**

**do you wish to open the door? Y/N**

Fox clicked yes and the door clicked. He hurried into the room to find what was inside and was not disappointed at what he found. The room was about the size of a large walk-in closet, but instead of shoes and clothes hanging around. Ammunition lined the walls along with parts of weapons and tools needed to craft with them. There was enough ammo in the room to supply him for several days with the way that he blew through it. If he rationed it out properly, then there would be enough for two or three weeks. Fox filled his pockets with the ammo and gunsmithing equipment. After that was done, he went deeper into room and found that in the back corner was a small chest. Fox checked the chest for traps that may be linked to it instinctively before deciding that it was safe to open. He opened the chest to find that it held a single outfit of clothing along with some col and a single use repair kit for field repairs. Fox picked up the clothes and looked at them fully before deciding what to do with them.

The shirt was blood red and it came with a open black vest that looked to be made out of a strong animal skin. The color of the pants that came with it matched the vest and the pants had pockets up and down the legs to carry extra equipment, giving more inventory space. The clothes were called the [Hide Of Kings]. It seemed that it was made out of Anibal's hide and extremely durable. Fox clicked the 'equip' button and the clothes flashed onto his form and replaced his old ones. He equipped his longcoat back on before double-checking to see if he had left anything in the room.

After a thorough investigation, he left and went down the hall. The walk down the hallway to the white light did not take as long as he thought it would. After a short walk down the hall, he reached the white light and passed through. When he stepped out of the tunnel, he found himself standing on top of a steep hill overlooking the next sector. On top of the hill, he was welcomed to a beautiful sight. Below him was a lush green forest, teeming with life. Birds and other avian animals were flying high in the sky and Fox saw animals darting in and out of the brush near the edge of the forest. Off in the distance, Fox could see the small town, where he would be staying for the next couple day. Fox stayed on the hill for a while longer before setting out to the next town to begin working again to level up and prepare for the next boss. This time he was one step closer to beating GGO and going home.


End file.
